1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of fashion apparel and accessories, and particularly to hand bags. More specifically the present invention relates to a hand bag such as a purse having an automatic internal light assembly and which is configured as circumferentially sequenced, radial bellows constructed of a series of arched support ribs rotatably mounted at each end to co-linear and longitudinally spaced apart half axles and interconnected by flexible sheet material. The sheet material expands and folds with the ribs in accordion fashion as the ribs rotate about the axles. Ends of the sheet material are secured to adjacent ribs which together define a hand bag access opening. A lighting circuit is housed within concave axle head structures secured to outer ends of each half axle at end of the hand bag.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been purses and other hand bags for carrying personal items on errands and excursions. A problem with most purses, and hand bags generally, has been that they tend to be monotonously uniform in structure and appearance, and most lack internal lighting so that items they contain are difficult to locate while one is outdoors at night.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a hand bag which is new and is noticeably different in mechanical structure and appearance from those already known.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a hand bag which has a structure which causes an interesting and inter-dependent movement of virtually all portions of the hand bag when the hand bag is opened or closed.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a hand bag which contains lighting means which automatically activates when the hand bag is opened and deactivates when it is closed, and in which the lighting means are largely contained within and integrated with the hand bag structural and ornamental features.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a hand bag which is durable, spacious and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.